Don't Blame Me, I voted for Kodos

Monday night, 27 August 2007 4:30-6:00 pm I welcomed a new addition to the family. Kang makes my tenth tattoo. i have wanted to get a Simpsons tattoo for the longest time but could never settle on a design. I have seen countless Bart tattoos and have not been impressed by one of them, nor the Homers etc. Well, two weeks ago before leaving for a trip to the Outer Banks, NC I stopped at a Burger King for a fish sandwich. They were selling Simpsons merchandise to promote the movie so I bought a talking Homer. The food came in a bag that had characters from the show all over it. There were Kang and Kodos out in front. I decided then and there what my next tattoo would be. While not my favorite characters (that honor goes to Krusty and Clancy- neither one of them suited for their professions of clown and cop) they are certainly quirky and are done in the unmistakable Matt Groening style. Kang fits in well next to Hunter S. Thompson, and my interpretation of Giacometti's, "the Nose".

I'm sure it will not be my last. Let me say that I have gotten 7 tattoos from Art Apocalypse in Athens Ohio and 4 of them from Chad. He does excellent work, as do the other artists.

Fall Guy Rebate

On July 4th of this year I was in the Tri-County Mall in Cincinnati Ohio with my two good friends the Queen City Muse and his regular contributor, Sol Rosenberg. After price-checking several sources for the DVD release of the first season of The Fall Guy with Lee Majors and Heather Thomas I settled on the 6 disc set for $36.99 at FYE owned by Transworld, the former employer of one such good friend. As I was getting the receipt the clerk said, "and here is your rebate for $27.00". I took two steps, looked at Tony and asked if I heard that correctly. He had the same reaction I did. I returned to the counter and asked the clerk. He replied that I had heard correctly and if I followed the directions I would get the $27.00 that would bring the total cost of the set to $9.99. When I returned home I did the paperwork and mailed it in. I shortly thereafter received an e-mail confirming that Transworld had received my rebate request and would process accordingly.

Today, not two months later, I received the check. I used it to buy one of those pricey clear plastic ipod covers. While too expensive for my money, this one was on Transworld.

The Nose

I begin this entry with a scan of one of my all-time favorite drawings based on my favorite sculpture of all time. The subject is "The Nose" by Alberto Giacometti. It was done in 1947 (the year my mother was born) and is made of bronze (the figure), twine, and an open cube made of iron from which the figure is suspended. As I type this the drawing (black ballpoint pen, black ink wash and coloured pencils) is three years old. I made it in August of 2004 when I had the opportunity to go back to the Hirsch Horn Gallery in Washington D.C.

Giacometti's sculptures are beautiful, in an odd sort of way. While his human figures have realistic features, the proportions are often exaggerated through stretching. Normal looking torsos and arms will often be coupled with very long legs. Perhaps my favorite aspect of these sculptures is the tactile surface of them. There is no question that these beings were pinched, shaped and given life by very skilled, very human hands. They are often very rough with bumps and impressions left in the surface.

I have since resized this drawing and gotten it tattooed on my right upper calf. It is part of a growing band of different, yet similar designs around my leg. Its neighbors are a charicature of the late Hunter S. Thompson by Ralph Steadman, a cave drawing of a Scrab from the Oddworld series of games, and a Bone Cannon from the original Nintendo version of Castlevania. I am looking to close the sleeve with Kang (or Kodos) of Simpsons fame.

Any suggestions?

23 August 2007